BBC costume collection sold to Angels The Costumiers

BBC commerical subsidiary BBC Resources has sold the BBC costume collection to Angels The Costumiers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The BBC noted there had been strong international and UK interest in the famed collection. The BBC in February 2008 shut down its Costume + Wigs department, which was based in West London.

Angels, first established in 1840, has historical ties to the BBC working on projects including The Forsyte Saga.

The company will keep the collection open for hire by the UK film industry and international productions shooting in Britain.

Angels currently has about 3 million costumes in stock at its warehouse in Hendon, North London. The BBC costumes, numbering more than one million, will be stocked at the warehouse from later this month.

Tim Angel, chairman of Angels The Costumiers, said: 'We are looking forward to providing a working home for the BBC costume stock. I anticipate that the stock from the latter part of the 20th century will become more popular over the next few years, as TV and film makers increasingly turn to the sixties, seventies, and eighties as decades in which to set quality dramas.'

Mike Southgate, CEO of BBC Resources, added: 'We're delighted that the collection will continue to be available to the production community going forward.'

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